Leakage

This sonification comes from the Thames Water leakage issues that are in the news.

The data, hardcoded into a script, is taken from the Thames Water Annual Performance 24-25 report that appears to be latest one. Sadly, the current report for 2025/2026 does not give the megalitres/day that was in the previous one, which is disappointing.

The sonification uses two effects to alter each second of audio after a one second clean introduction.

The first effect is time stretching to alter each one second sample in response to the data before it returns to the intro to end.

London

Thames Water Outside of London

The second alters pitch and makes the sound like it is underwater.

London

Thames Water Outside of London

The murkier the sound, the greater the leakage. London does appear to have a more extreme leakage so it has a stronger set of aural changes.

The intention is to develop a more accessible musification / sonification than using abstract entities.

The music is Handel's Water Music that referenced the Thames, so seemed apt from two perspectives. First it is about the region's main river and secondly is a well-known track. This version was recorded in 1946 and is on the Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/mx-279-handel-water-music-suite). It is well known enough that I feel it can be played and a general audience will recognise the tune before it is affected by the data.